May 2017

May 25, 2017

Two things worth keeping in mind for those about to launch careers: first, you may actually use some of that required coursework from college that you can’t imagine you ever will; and second, showing your vulnerability when you’re CEO can make your business stronger.

Just ask Lois Melbourne, who now heads a foundation that helps young people decide on careers. But that’s her second act. Her first was as a software entrepreneur back in 1994, when both “software” and “entrepreneur” were almost exotic. Lois launched a website for her business in 1995, and marveled at how companies all over the world could find her. Plus, they all communicated in English…at least, on the surface.

That was good for Lois, who grew up in southern Missouri and jokes that she and her brother are bilingual because “we speak hillbilly and English.” At Missouri State, Lois took the requisite one year of another language. She chose French over Spanish because “I thought it was more romantic.” But she didn’t think she’d ever actually use it.

Still, she knew enough from taking that class to realize that if she wanted to grow her business internationally, she would need some serious bilingual chops.

Lois’s solution was not what you might expect—she did not become proficient in speaking French, even though she was adept at reading it. Moreover, her solution made her vulnerable in the eyes of her clients. And that turned out to be one of the best executive decisions this CEO made.

Find out how Lois made her company international in voice as well as reach, in Episode 5 of the America the Bilingual podcast.

May 12, 2017

As recently as 20 years ago, moms in America worried that their young children would not learn English—even though they themselves spoke it. Jeane Deligero Forrest, who is from the Philippines, was one. Although she spoke to her daughter, Amber, in English, she also talked to her in her native Tagalog when Amber was little.

Jeane’s story on how she immigrated to the “wrong” America first, and eventually to the actual United States, is filled with the kinds of setbacks, serendipities and unwavering determination typical of so many who come here.

The Tagalog that she spoke to her daughter was one of the few things Jeane brought with her to the U.S. from the Philippines. It is the common language Filipinos speak “to understand each other,” Jeane says. “There are three hundred sixty dialects in the Philippines.” Jeane’s family spoke Ilonggo as well as Tagalog.

But once in the “real” America, Jeane soon stopped talking in Tagalog to Amber. “I got scared,” she says. “I was afraid she wouldn’t learn English.” Much later—too late, actually—a pediatrician told her that young children are perfectly capable of learning two languages at the same time.

“Missing a part of my history”

When Amber was 14, Jeane took her to the Philippines for the first time to meet her family members. Jeane’s childhood home there was a marked contrast to Amber’s comfortable home in Florida—a bucket of cold water for a shower, a cot for a bed, an open window for air conditioning.

None of this bothered Amber. What did trouble her was not being able to converse with her family. She knew some rudimentary Tagalog phrases, but they were not enough.

“It felt like I was missing a part of my history,” Amber says. She and her relatives had only the breezes wafting from the window to fill “those long, awkward silences.”

A mother-and-daughter gift

It’s not all that surprising, then, that today, Amber (who appears to have inherited her mother’s determination) is learning Tagalog. And it’s Jeane who’s inspiring her—by learning another language herself. “Spanish is an important language to have,” she says.

For this Mother’s Day, Amber has a simple gift she is giving her mom. You can hear it here, in Episode 4 of America the Bilingual.

Some of my favorite reading on the languages they carried

If Jeane had known about the 1986 book, The Mirror of Language: The Debate on Bilingualism, she might not have agonized over whether to speak to her young daughter in Tagalog. Kenji Hakuta, an emeritus professor at Stanford, explains in his clear, gentle prose how half-baked science misinformed generations of Americans about the supposed disadvantages of bilingualism.

For a delightful little book on American immigration, I recommend American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction, by David Gerber, in which he leads us through the three great waves of American immigration. I learned how what seems new in today’s immigration debates isn’t. All in just 160 pages, in a book that fits handily in your pocket and your mind.